How are EDR Liaison Times Determined?

As a (relatively) young style of mountain bike racing, Enduro has undergone a lot of change very quickly. And that change has continued apace in recent years with the highest level of racing, the EWS becoming the EDR. Now, the EDR shares weekends with the Electric-EDR, as well as occasionally (including this weekend) triple-heading a venue along with the DH discipline.

That means that the old two-day race format has been truncated, with the entirety of timed competition taking place in one day. Some enduro racers have expressed qualms about these changes, and the perceived timeline and logistical squeeze on their event. That’s especially important to their discipline since, while only the descending stages are timed, and count toward their results, there are strict time limits on the liaison portions of the day when riders pedal between descending stages. Missing those time limits leads to time penalties, or even disqualification. The UCI rulebook states:

Late starters will receive a fixed penalty:

• Up to 5 minutes late = 1 minute penalty

• 5+ minutes late = 5 minute penalty

• 30+ minutes late = DNF Any racer arriving at the start of a Special Stage later than 30 minutes after their specified start time will be assigned a DNF for the race and should not complete any other stages.

Frustration with these truncated timelines boiled over in Finale last weekend where some riders felt that the liaison times set by event organizers were too tight. That challenge was exacerbated by heat, resulted in a large number of penalties and DNFs. A few riders took to social media to air their concerns. Bex Baraona who placed 10th among Elite Women, posted the following as part of a caption on her Instagram:

“The day turned very quickly into a race to just make your stage start times. This race made me feel unfit but I train my arse off for this. I think the race course and strategy just missed the mark and they got it wrong.”

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Noga Korem, who had a rare DNF at the grueling race, also felt strongly that the transfers were too tight.

I reached out to her to ask about her feelings about the liaison time limits:

“It's hard to compare this year's transfer times to previous years because we haven't done the exact transfers,” she replied. “But I [have been] racing EWS/EDR since the end of 2016 and I can say that this time we had to go the fastest pace ever.

However, these concerns weren’t universal. Greg Callaghan, who had one of his best results in years at Finale with a seventh-place finish, had a more positive take on the liaisons when I reached out to him. Although he acknowledged that the liaisons felt tighter than years past, he also pointed out that they’re necessary to ensure longer races, which help differentiate Enduro from DH.

“I think the course length was at the limit of time they need to get all riders around within daylight,” Greg noted. “If the liaison times were longer, maybe the race would have had to be shorter. We want longer races so maybe this is how the organizers tried to provide that.”

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Callaghan felt that the organizers did a good job considering the obvious limitations.

Riders who felt that the liaisons were too short cited rider safety. Korem said on Instagram that she dropped out because she felt unsafe on the bike during her race run from pushing so hard on the climb. Baraona took her criticism a step further and joked that it felt like they were trying to kill her.

So how are those liaison times determined? Who sets them, and what is the process to make sure that they’re reasonable?

When I reached out to the Finale race director Francesco Gozio for more information, he explained that the process of determining those times is actually very regulated.

Gozio told me that The UCI Mountain Bike World Series shares an organizer guide with the Local Organizing Committee (LOC) that works to apply local knowledge to design the course and importantly, set liaison times.

Liaison times are calculated by the LOC using the following steps.

- Step 1: Calculate the time depending on the indications given (average speed on liaison for a rider: 7 km/h)

- Step 2: Adapt depending on local knowledge (pushing sections, downhill sections, road bits, elevation, point of specific liaison during the race)

- Step 3: Test times on the ground and let one (or more) strong EDR-Open rider ride the whole race [course] reporting specific times on both liaison and stages. Then compare [this] to the numbers of steps 1 and 2.

- Step 4: Add time to accommodate possible mechanicals, weather conditions, liaison conditions, local dynamics to respect (walking some sections, etc.), and physicality of the stages

All of the above criteria must be consistent with the level of the event: for example, Finale was not just a World Cup event but the open race is also a qualifier for the World Cup.

It’s worth noting that all categories are held to the same time limits. That means that everyone from junior racers to the fastest elites must make the same time cutoffs to transfer between stages.

Gozio says that organizers hear athletes’ concerns, and will continue to listen to feedback from riders. Learn more about Francesco in Yeti's short film 'Race Director" below.

It does seem like there’s been some confusion among riders about the process for setting those times. Korem called for changes, including a course pre-ride on a non-motorized bike to help set timing expectations for organizers, even though, according to Gozio, that’s already an essential part of the process.

It will be interesting to see how riders, and race organizers deal with the course in Bielsko-Biala, Poland this weekend.

There are plenty of questions swirling as Enduro continues to mature, and E-Enduro grows alongside it. Can these disciplines continue to be viable without some sort of live-broadcast strategy? Should e-bike racing get the same time and resources of its older sibling? And what truly sets Enduro racing apart from a weekend of DH? We don’t pretend to have the answers, but we’re excited for a packed season of racing.